15 choice wines, spirits for grab @Yudala nationwide

ITRealms:

Leading composite e-commerce outfit in Nigeria, Yudala, has launched 15 choice wines and spirits in its stores nationwide to cater for the classy lifestyle of Nigerians, reports ITRealms.

Disclosing this to ITRealms, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Yudala, Mr. Wole Ogundare, said at the weekend that the specific stores for the classy wines and spirits, would be rolled out in major cities including Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Owerri, Uyo, to name a few.

The stores, he said, would complement Yudala’s extensive online orders and delivery services, stressing that this would serve Yudala’s varied customers who have come to rely on the brand as a credible source of quality, high-end wines and spirits - sourced directly from the manufacturers.

“Yudala will deploy well-trained personnel at no cost to serve these drinks at parties, based on volumes ordered. We plan to add class to any event supplied with our wines and spirits - a quality party solution platform,” Ogundare declared.

Additionally, he said, among the impressive wines and spirits brands to be positioned across Yudala stores are Dom Perignon, Luc Belaire Rose, Moet Nectar Rose, Hennessy XO/VSOP, Luc Belaire Luxe, Armand de Brignac, Belvedere Vodka, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon, Veuve Clicquote Brut, Scavy and Ray, American Honey, Campari, Krug Grande Curvee, Sky Vodka, Remy Martin VSOP, Numanthia, Carlo Rossi, Andre, to name but a few.

Equally, he said, Yudala has plans to offer mouth-watering discounts to individuals and organizations for special celebrations and occasions such as 21st, 25th, 30th or 50th wedding or birthday anniversaries as well as corporate end-of-year balls cum dinner parties.

“Such orders will also be delivered free, accompanied with a free gift to the celebrants and/or organizers, courtesy of Yudala,” he revealed.

This, Ogundare told ITRealms, represents Yudala’s own unique way of making such memorable celebrations an even more rewarding affair for the celebrants.

“For such special occasion, we will add the special Yudala touch. Orders for wines and spirits received for these kind of occasions will be given the VIP treatment. Apart from offering as much as 5% discount to the celebrants/organizers, we will deliver the items free of charge to any location nationwide. The individual, couple, family, group or corporate organization celebrating will also receive a valuable gift from Yudala.

“We have commenced work on the wines/spirits stores nationwide to ensure customers have an easy access to our wide collection of quality brands. In addition, these stores will serve as wine-tasting outlets where interested individuals will get a chance to sample these exclusive products,” he said.

According to him, Yudala currently occupies pride of place as a power retailer in the wines and spirits category, with an array of high-net worth clients nationwide including night clubs, wine bars and a host of resellers/individuals with an eye for quality, leveraging on Yudala’s renowned status of dealing in genuine products only.

Yudala, ITRealms reports, has since assumed a major role in Nigeria’s omni-channel retail space; a forward looking fusion of online and offline platforms and an uncompromising emphasis on genuine products, positioning it as a potential leader in the nation’s retail space.

Nonye Dom/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

24hours to grab $50,000 prize in ReCode Nigeria hackathon

ITRealms:

Hackers aiming to grab the $50,000 prize in the Recode Nigeria initiative by the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) should be warming up to achieve that in the next 24 hours, reports ITRealms.

This, ITRealms reports, would herald a three-day hackathon slated for March 24-26, the programme attracts multiple teams of talented developers, designers, problem-solvers, and out-of-the-box thinkers to build brilliant solutions to the most vexing problems in financial services. 

AFF spokesperson, Victor Okigbo, confirmed to ITRealms that the banking industry needs to enhance its existing customer experience. 

“The mission of these participants is to transform the mode of customer engagement, enhance the customer experience and create solutions that bring value to banking customers” he said.

Okigbo also said that during the hackathon, participating teams would have the privilege of creating excellent solutions that combine API’s from one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions, IBM’s Bluemix platform, Microsoft Azure amongst others.

Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Access Bank, Roosevelt Ogbonna, said the bank is collaborating with the AFF to “ensure that shareholders value and growth in tomorrow’s complex financial technology ecosystem can be delivered. By supporting initiatives like Recode Nigeria hackathon, we have teamed up with technology titans like Microsoft, IBM and other numerous technology startups to create the future together.” 

Enumerating what the participants derive from using its latest platforms, Microsoft spokesperson, Dona Sarkar in an interview with Accelerate tv, said as a cloud-computing infrastructure for building and managing applications through a global network, “Microsoft Azure offers startups the opportunity to host their applications in the cloud. As such, they will not purchase or manage their own servers. That is why the winner gets access to the Azure platform.”

However, upon completion of the contest, Okigbo gave an assurance that a team at the hackathon would be accepted into the 17-week AFF accelerator programme with up to $50,000 seed investment. He added that the winning teams will get up to N3million-prize money, one-year's access to IBM’s Bluemix and Microsoft Azure platforms.

While explaining the IBM Bluemix cloud service, IBM’s spokesperson, Akintomide Akingbade, said the service supports several programming languages and services to build, run, and manage applications on the cloud. “We are backing the startups at Recode Nigeria hackathon with the latest cloud offering from IBM. With this partnership, we are enabling the software geniuses create and manage their mobile and web applications on the cloud”.

Individuals and teams can register at www.recodenigeria.com. The number allowed in a team, Okigbo said, is a minimum of two and a maximum of five persons. Participants care free to register as individuals or with a team.

Industry leaders and representatives are among the judges that will select the winners of the Recode Nigeria hackathon. Each submission will be scored based on certain criteria with the final score being the average of all scores. The judges include Victor Etuokwu, Ernest Ndukwe, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Joseph Sam.

Other supporting organizations are Emaginations, Re:write, Trium, Systemic Logics, Accelerate TV, ntel, Dev Center and Design Institute.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Yudala dangles Kia Rio car for grabs @Zero Gravity

ITRealms:

In less than a week to the D-day of the multi-city digital entertainment concert tagged Yudala Zero Gravity powered by pioneer composite e-commerce outfit, Yudala and New Concept Media Group, the excitement are dangling a Kia Rio for grabs, reports ITRealms.

Kia Motors Nigeria, ITRealms reports is one of the heavyweight sponsors of the event, thus paving the way for a lucky winner in attendance to stand a chance to drive home a brand new Kia Rio at the Yudala Zero Gravity concerts.

ITRealms gathered that from its very humble beginnings as a manufacturer of bicycle parts by hand on the outskirt of Seoul, Korea, Kia Motors has emerged as the driving force behind the Korean motor vehicle for the last six decades, laying claim to the production of the country first automobile as well as Korea first automobile export. The word Kia is derived from the Chinese characters Ki, meaning to arise or come up out of and a, referring to Asia. So when put together, Kia means to arise or come up out of Asia.

Today, ITRealms reports that Kia has truly risen as a major global player and boasts an ever-expanding product line-up that is sold through a network of distributors and dealers covering 172 countries around the world. Over 40,000 Kia employees spanning the globe from an expansive human network that aspires for excellence on behalf of our valued customers.

With a customer-facing philosophy centred on the slogan – The Power to Surprise – Kia Motors has emerged as one of the most visible and fast-selling car brands in Nigeria and beyond. With a host of car models including the Picanto, Soul, Cerato, Optima, Optima Hybrid, Cadenza, Quoris and the Rio which is up for grabs at Yudala Zero Gravity, the brand has led the way in innovation for others to follow. This is in addition to SUV models such as the Sportage, Sorento and Mohave as well as its line of commercial vehicles which has endeared the Kia Motors brand to many individuals, businesses and corporate organizations alike.

Yudala Zero Gravity is a three-city dual entertainment event which will feature a Contemporary Music Blast as well as a Rock Gospel Concert in Lagos, Abuja and Enugu.

The action kicks off on Sunday October 2^nd 2016 with a Contemporary Music Blast at the Landmark Event Centre, Oniru.

On queue, ITRealms gathered are a number of superstar artistes have been confirmed for the Contemporary Music Blast concerts in Lagos, Abuja and Enugu. The list includes Olamide, Iyanya, Phyno, Zoro, Sound Sultan, Flavour, Humble Smith, Naeto C, Cynthia Morgan, David Grey, Ali Baba, Akpororo and many more. Also, a number of premium corporate organizations such as Access Bank, Airtel, Stanbic Bank, HP, Lenovo, InnJoo Mobile, Uber and a host of media organizations including MTV Base, Trace TV, ITRealms, Urban FM, Classic FM, among others are on board as partners.

ITRealms further recalls that Yudala Zero Gravity will witness pure acoustics and live performances from the best Nigerian artistes in both genres of music, many of whom will use the platform to launch new tracks. It is a platform to see and hear it first.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

She Leads Africa partners GTBank on female enterpreneurs, $15,000 up for grabs

ITRealms:

She Leads Africa has entered into partnership with GTBank to empower female African enterpreneurs as they thrown $15,000, about N2,984,250.00 million up for grab, reports ITRealms.

The flagship of the event, ITRealms gathered, is the premier platform for young female entrepreneurs looking to grow and scale their businesses across Africa. 

Participants, ITRealms also gathered will vie for United States $15,000 in cash prizes, media features in international news outlets, and exclusive meetings with top investors.

ITRealms recalls that the 2014 edition received nearly 400 applications from 27 countries for just 10 finalist positions. The top finalists were featured in Forbes, Ventures Africa, Venture Burn and several other international news outlets. They also had the opportunity to pitch their businesses to a panel of leading business personalities including Aliko Dangote, Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Audu Maikori and Omoyemi Akerele.

Based on the fact that female entrepreneurs are often underestimated, hindered and overlooked, GTBank and partner found the need to empower the zealous entrepreneurs in the continent.

This year teamwork championed by GTBank is to illuminate on women who are driving Africa's growth through leadership, commerce and innovation.

Corroborating the need of empowering female entrepreneurs, Yasmin Bello-Osagie, Co-founder, She Leads Africa says, “We decided to launch She Leads Africa because we saw a critical gap in the market - no one was investing in high growth female entrepreneurs. Through our Entrepreneur Showcase we not only give exceptional entrepreneurs a space to connect with investors and the media but we also provide them with training and mentoring to ensure that they are able to take advantage of the experience."

Affirming the effect of the competition, the 2014 winner, Cherae Robinson founder of travel startup Tastemakers Africa stated "participating in the She Leads Africa pitch competition literally changed my life and my business, by putting me on a rocket ship towards success." "I was able to hire my first employee with my winnings and I continue to receive support from the team nearly one year later," she concluded.

Application window has been specially extended for SME businesses listed on the GTBank SME MarketHub until 27^th July 2015 at 11:59pm. Businesses from any industry are eligible to apply as long as there is one woman on the founding team between 18-35 years old. 

To apply please visitwww.smemarkethub.com/she-leads-africa and don't forget to attach your pitch deck. 

Considering the fact that there is nothing like concrete plan, paying attention to dreams, nurture it and taking advantage of every opportunities, Anals Nin urges “ Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”

 @GTB

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!